In retail environments, such as grocery stores and other “brick and mortar” stores, retail personnel use equipment, such as point-of-sale (POS) equipment for conducting purchase transactions with customers. POS equipment may include a user interface, such as a keyboard and display, with which retail personnel can enter data and view information related to a purchase transaction. In addition, POS equipment may include scanners for optically scanning bar codes affixed to items or products for purchase by a customer. The POS equipment may also include a customer-facing display and other user interface equipment with which the customer can interface for conducting the purchase transaction.
Selection of items to be purchased by a customer can be very time consuming for retail personnel. Especially in a grocery store setting, a customer may have many items for purchase, and this can take a considerable amount of time for entry when conducting a purchase transaction. Scanners are often used for quickly entering data for identifying an item. However, not all items have barcodes that can be scanned. For example, entry of produce, such as fruits and vegetables, can be time consuming, because the product look-up (PLU) code for a particular item may not be familiar to the retail personnel entering the item. Also, in self-checkout, a customer may not know the code and may be frustrated when trying to enter it. For at least these reasons, it is desired to provide an improved technique for guiding and selecting items for a purchase transaction.